LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Two Calgary media outlets are reporting that the man charged in the slaying of a two-year-old toddler and her father in southern Alberta has come out of a medically induced coma.
Global and CBC say unnamed sources say 22-year-old Derek Saretzky was speaking as of Friday afternoon.
Saretzky had been scheduled to appear via closed-circuit television inside a Lethbridge courtroom on Wednesday to face first-degree murder charges in the deaths of 27-year-old Terry Blanchette and his two-year-old daughter Hailey.
He did not appear and instead his case was put over to Sept. 30.
Alberta Justice spokeswoman Michelle Davio has said an inmate of the Lethbridge Correctional Centre was rushed to hospital in medical distress on Wednesday, but would not confirm the inmate's identity.
CBC has reported unnamed sources saying it was a suicide attempt, while Davio has said the inmate was not injured in an altercation at the centre.
Blanchette was discovered dead in his home in Blairmore last week and the child's remains were later found in a rural area near the town.
